


'Till Our Lives Do Us Part.

by bean_allusions



Category: Monty Python RPF
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Marriage Proposal, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26675884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bean_allusions/pseuds/bean_allusions
Summary: At Oxford, Michael asks Terry for a promise, at least for a little while.
Relationships: Terry Jones/Michael Palin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	'Till Our Lives Do Us Part.

The Oxford students sat quietly on Terry's bed, Autumn leaves falling on the Sunday passing by outside the high window. 

Michael was leaning against Terry's chest watching the wind blow what seemed to be leaves coloured the full spectrum of warmth on the colour wheel past the blue sky, both of their chests rising and falling to a sleepy rhythm, though both of them were still awake. It was one of their peaceful moments together in Terry's little room, pretending the world didn't exist. Michael thought back to the first time they'd done this, about a year and a half before. 

They'd only just met, and they had gone out to pubs with other mates, but one day as they walked back the group broke off to conveniently leave the two of them running and laughing as they tried to escape the rain. Terry had refused to leave his newfound friend walking to his room all alone, so he invited him up until the weather got better, an offer Michael graciously accepted. They spoke for hours into the night, discovering their shared approach to comedy and the absurd, pushing the limits of jokes and still getting laughs out of each other. 

They must have still been drunk when Terry giggled and asked if Michael had ever fancied blokes. Taken aback, afraid to lose this new person he shared so much with, Michael stuttered until Terry pulled him in close. They didn't kiss then, just held each other, wondering why they had to feel ashamed about and hide a feeling so pure simply because they were boys. 

As the months went by they saw more and more of each other, talked and joked, and just sat in silence as they did now, Michael's dexterous fingers toying with a loose thread precariously unraveling itself from one of Terry's blue shirt buttons as the oblivious button owner breathed softly, his cheek resting atop the crown of his lover's head. Michael thought, quietly just in case Terry could hear them through his skull, and spoke with a barely hidden shaky voice many minutes later.

"Do you ever want to get married, Tel?"

Terry sighed as he stirred, puzzled by the sudden query but still nuzzling into Michael's hair as he replied, a touch of gravel in his voice, the remnants of a barely fought off onslaught of sleep. "Well, I suppose I'll have to someday or else mum and dad are going to start asking questions-"

"No, Terry, I meant..." Michael almost didn't continue, the next fragments of his sentence coming out in begging whispers "Do you want to get married... to me? Right now?"

The older boy shifted to meet the younger's sad hazel eyes. "Oh, Mike-"

"Obviously not for real, but..." Michael smiled wistfully, looking out the window for a moment to formulate his words and then back again at Terry's inquisitive eyes that were filled with longing and worry. "I love you, Terry, I know I can't spend the rest of my life with you but can we at least pretend for a while?"

"I-"

"You don't need to say yes. You don't need to say anything, it was a stupid idea come to think of it, I'm sorry..."

Terry brushed a single stray tear of internal frustration from the other boy's cheek and tilted his head to face him.

"Yes. At least for now." Terry leaned his forehead against Michael's and smiled. He was getting married. Not legally, and no one would ever know but them, but it was a promise.

* * *

They knelt together in front of a tree by the pond that Michael once (alright, twice) fell into when his wonderfully absurd impressions took him a little too far. The atmosphere was very different now. 

There was no one there but them, dressed in their usual day clothes, kneeling before each other in the grass. A similar picture entered Terry's mind, from a movie he'd seen not long before. West Side Story. Tony and Maria, Romeo and Juliet, married young and secretly. He preferred to push the thoughts away once he remembered their endings.

Michael looked incredibly handsome in the dewy grass, haloed by the light of the sunrise. They'd snuck out to the secluded spot early before Mass, before anyone else awoke. He fumbled in his pocket and produced two rings, simple steel, but more than enough. He laid them down on a handkerchief between them before reaching back into his pocket and pulling out a smart-looking slender box and presented it to Terry, who was taken aback by the gesture.

"Open it! Quickly!" Michael insisted with a small chuckle.

"Oh Mike, you shouldn't have..." Terry said with love as he examined the fountain pen in the box, the letters T&M engraved onto the silver nib. He was promptly shushed by his lover when he questioned how much it cost, but still considered it would be at least a small fortune to a young university student. Oh well, it wasn't as if he'd done any better.

"A pocket watch? Tel, it's beautiful!" Michael gasped as he held the chain delicately, almost afraid it would disappear if he held it wrong. That was enough for Terry to beam proudly.

They gently pocketed their gifts and their laughter quickly faded away as they looked at the rings. 

Terry was the first to take the plain ornament and hold Michael's right hand in his. It would be suspicious if they started wearing identical embellishments on their ring fingers, they couldn't be seen like that. It was the gesture that mattered, they supposed.

Terry took a shuddering breath and Michael squeezed his hand gently as he finally spoke, a simple ceremony. They had no time for spoken vows; the words were felt in the air nonetheless.

"With this ring, I thee wed."

The ring slid effortlessly onto Michael's right ring finger, a physical manifestation of a promise between them.

"With this ring, I thee wed." Michael returned the favour, picking up the other ring and slipping it onto Terry's left index finger, the younger boy's last two words shaking with the tightness of tears in his throat. He knew this couldn't last, this union. Eventually, they would have to move on with their lives but for now, roaming the halls of Oxford and holding each other close in the hideaways of their rooms, they had made a promise of love, and that was enough.

"'Till our lives do us part." Said Terry as he leaned his forehead onto his groom's. "I love you, Palin"

"I love you more, Jones" Michael kissed Terry very gently, afraid of when this would all end.

* * *

After two more years of hidden bliss, during which Terry had graduated but still visited Michael frequently, Michael met Helen. Or rather, re-met her and recognized her from a Suffolk holiday years before when they were both young teens. Michael immediately went to Terry's, ready for a misunderstanding and a screaming match, but Terry only gave him a wistful smile.

"''Till our lives do us part, Michael. It's time."

Although they usually chatted away humourously and joked about when they were around each other, now they walked in silence to the pond by the tree as Terry cursed that he hadn't even brought a trowel, and Michael argued that neither of them even owned a trowel, and they decided to dig with their hands. 

After ten minutes of silence, other than the sound of dug-up dirt hitting solid ground and the occasional frustrated muttering, there was a hole about half a foot deep at the base of the tree, between two large roots that burrowed in and out of the ground like mountain ranges.

"Terry, I'm sorry..." Michael looked down at the small hole that seemed endless to him.

"Michael... It's time. This was going to happen eventually. She's perfect for you." There was no air or sarcasm or contempt in Terry's voice, just an understanding care and a feeling of closure.

"I love you very very much, I hope you don't forget that." Michael was beginning to tear up as he had almost exactly two years before, and Terry once more brushed them away with his thumb. 

"I know. I love you too. I still do, it's just... different now. We had our time, and I couldn't have asked for anything more"

Michael smiled and nodded in agreement, and they pulled off the steel rings that had marked their love.

_clink, clink_

They made a dull noise as they fell into the hole and laid resting, not dead, just lying peacefully against each other. Michael Palin and Terry Jones, both still very young, acted with an air of melancholic maturity as they held each other once more.

* * *

Years into their happy marriages, Helen would ask Michael about the silver pocket watch he kept in his bedside drawer, and Alison about the fountain pen Terry never put away but refused to use, engraved with strange initials. Their responses to their beloved wives would simply be that it was from a friend, and with that statement, they never really lied.

In the decades later their friendship bloomed into a close bond, and every so often one of them would accidentally bring up quiet Oxford days and they would reminisce temporarily.

And though it had once nearly broken their hearts, knowing that they had moved on but were still close, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This most definitely wasn't written in the span of two hours on a whim... In all seriousness, this is one of my favorite ships of all time, especially in a university setting. I listened mostly to It's Over / Engagement Party from the La La Land soundtrack while I wrote, it gives a wonderful sense of bittersweet closure that fits perfectly with the image I had in mind for this story.


End file.
